In his 2000 work “Escaping the Matrix: Are You Ready for the Red Pill?” Richard Moore begins:
The defining dramatic moment in the film The Matrix occurs just after Morpheus invites Neo to choose between a red pill and a blue pill. The red pill promises "the truth, nothing more." Neo takes the red pill and awakes to reality--something utterly different from anything Neo, or the audience, could have expected. What Neo had assumed to be reality turned out to be only a collective illusion, fabricated by the Matrix and fed to a population that is asleep, cocooned in grotesque embryonic pods. In Plato's famous parable about the shadows on the walls of the cave, true reality is at least reflected in perceived reality.
snip
Most of us expect rhetoric from politicians, and take what they say with a grain of salt. But as my own picture of present reality came into focus, "grain of salt" no longer worked as a metaphor. I began to see that consensus reality--as generated by official rhetoric and amplified by mass media--bears very little relationship to actual reality. "The matrix" was a metaphor I was ready for.
snip
This perspective on the political process, and on the roles of left and right, is very far from reality. It is a fabricated collective illusion. Morpheus tells Neo that the Matrix is "the world that was pulled over your eyes to hide you from the truth....As long as the Matrix exists, humanity cannot be free." Consensus political reality is precisely such a matrix.
In other words, we, the majority of American citizens, sleep-walk around in a collective “surreality” lost to a toxic mythology, product of the collusion of “officialdom” and corporate media.
Moore’s stunningly insightful work was written in 2000 but its analyses and warnings apply even more strongly to our 2012 reality -- rather, "matrix" surreality. Lost to and in the matrix, we enable the continuing destruction of our democracy and the destruction of foreign peoples by global corporatization.
Moore can’t emphasize enough how effective propaganda trickled down from the ruling class elite is necessary to confuse and divide up a citizenry so that citizenry can continue to be massively exploited from above.
Raw economic aggrandizement is causing global misery, but to snuff out the possibility of effective collective public dissent Moore contends “fabricated motivations” for gross amoral non-representative governmental behavior must be provided to keep the majority of citizens continuing on passive and economically and politically hog-tied within the matrix system. The capitalist overlords must confuse citizen serfs and get them to attribute “patriotism, national honor and heroic causes” to sociopathic ruthless illegitimate activities from grotesquely exorbitant greed and self-interest.
We’ve all been spiritually drugged by mass media into the matrix system to varying degrees. The swallowing of the "blue pill" of denial.
Moore contends that the costs of territorial empire were (and still are) on the backs of Western taxpayers, but the profits from it went and continue to go to private corporations and investors. Politicians and media will do anything and everything to distract us from collectively comprehending and responding to this travesty.
It is the corporations and their super-profiteering handlers who really run “global empire” and our national politicians slather on jingoistic rhetoric to make government seem, but not actually, to care about the “common good” and be worthy of the “public trust” (two phrases now missing from our national political vocabulary).
Moore considers 1945 a turning point year. It heralded the divorce between national and corporatist interests and the beginning of the globalization matrix web of officialdom lies. After World War II a “Pax Americana” was established. The US began “to manage all the Western peripheries on behalf of capitalism generally, while preventing the communist powers from interfering in the game.”
Globalized capitalism was hidden under the cover of expanding benign “democratization” and the critical needs of citizenries of all smaller ‘periphery’ nations could be collectively safe-guarded under the monitoring and mentoring attention of the United Nations organization, especially with great attention to the mandate to “restore order” to troubled regions.
This "restore order" mandate is what, Moore asserts, the “neo-cons” and “neo-libs” opportunistically leapt on and exploited over and over and over as a pretense for suppression, destruction and exploitation of smaller countries for their imperialist agendas.
In the postwar years matrix reality diverged ever further from actual reality. In the postwar matrix [lying] world, imperialism had been abandoned and the world was being "democratized"; in the real world, imperialism had become better organized and more efficient. In the matrix [lying] world the US "restored order," or "came to the assistance" of nations which were being "undermined by Soviet influence"; in the real world, the periphery was being systematically suppressed and exploited. In the matrix [lying] world, the benefit was going to the periphery in the form of countless aid programs; in the real world, immense wealth was being extracted from the periphery.
Moore explains that Western citizens were oblivious to the amoral manipulations of the matrix [lying] system because there were “unprecedented levels of Western prosperity and social progress.” At the same time as many of the middle class were “comfortable” the corporations, banks and capital investors were making PHENOMENAL WEALTH by exploiting "periphery" nations.
Then along came the 1960s narrates Moore and a big SHIFT threatened the scope of matrix thralldom. Those big-mouthed college hippies among others began to “call out” the profoundly hypocritical and globally destructive corporate profit-making and nation destroying matrix!
The parallel agenda of Third-World exploitation and Western prosperity worked effectively for the first two postwar decades. But in the 1960s large numbers of Westerners, particularly the young and well educated, began to notice glitches in the matrix. In Vietnam imperialism was too naked to be successfully masked as something else. A major split in American public consciousness occurred, as millions of anti-war protestors and civil-rights activists punctured the fabricated consensus of the 1950s and declared the reality of exploitation and suppression both at home and abroad. The environmental movement arose, challenging even the exploitation of the natural world. In Europe, 1968 joined 1848 as a landmark year of popular protest.
Suddenly prosperity did not guarantee passivity among the citizenry.
Moore cites the work of an “elite planner,” Harvard Professor Samuel P. Hungtington, that was published in 1975 to explain the importance of having a deaf, dumb and blind, so to speak, citizenry for global imperialism to work.
Huntington tells us that democratic societies "cannot work" unless the citizenry is "passive." The "democratic surge of the 1960s" represented an "excess of democracy," which must be reduced if governments are to carry out their traditional domestic and foreign policies. Huntington's notion of "traditional policies" is expressed in a passage from the report:
"To the extent that the United States was governed by anyone during the decades after World War II, it was governed by the President acting with the support and cooperation of key individuals and groups in the executive office, the federal bureaucracy, Congress, and the more important businesses, banks, law firms, foundations, and media, which constitute the private sector's 'Establishment'."
In these few words Huntington spells out the reality that electoral democracy has little to do with how America is run, and summarizes the kind of people who are included within the elite planning community. Who needs conspiracy theories when elite machinations are clearly described in public documents like these?
During this tumultuous time, the matrix system discovered to survive and prosper it was also time to sacrifice “popular prosperity and welfare” for American citizens that no longer protected it, anyway. Japan with its lower-scaled citizen standard of living was becoming a profound competitor with American-based corporations who soon became willing to jettison American employees for the the profits and promises of globalization.
But a different and seductive anti-prosperity matrix mythology had to be created to keep the citizenry complacent in the face of their economic abandonment. Moore writes:
... Production could be moved overseas to low-wage areas, allowing domestic unemployment to rise. Unions could be attacked and wages forced down, and people could be pushed into temporary and part-time jobs without benefits. Regulations governing corporate behavior could be removed, corporate and capital-gains taxes could be reduced, and the revenue losses could be taken out of public-service budgets. Public infrastructures could be privatized, the services reduced to cut costs, and then they could be milked for easy profits while they deteriorated from neglect.
These are the very policies and programs launched during the Reagan-Thatcher years in the US and Britain. They represent a systematic project of increasing corporate growth at the expense of popular prosperity and welfare.
Such a real agenda would have been unpopular, and a corresponding matrix reality was fabricated for public consumption. The matrix reality used real terms like "deregulation," "reduced taxes," and "privatization," but around them was woven an economic mythology. The old, failed laissez-faire doctrine of the 1800s was reintroduced with the help of Milton Friedman's Chicago School of economics, and "less government" became the proud "modern" theme in America and Britain.
Sensible regulations had restored financial stability after the Great Depression, and had broken up anti-competitive monopolies such as the Rockefeller trust and AT&T. But in the new matrix reality, all regulations were considered bureaucratic interference. Reagan and Thatcher preached the virtues of individualism, and promised to "get government off people's backs." The implication was that everyday individuals were to get more money and freedom, but in reality the primary benefits would go to corporations and wealthy investors.
The academic term for laissez-faire economics is "economic liberalism," and hence the Reagan-Thatcher revolution has come to be known as the "neoliberal revolution." It brought a radical change in actual reality by returning to the economic philosophy that led to sweatshops, corruption, and robber-baron monopolies in the nineteenth century. It brought an equally radical change in matrix reality--a complete reversal in the attitude that was projected regarding government.
Moore explains that though government policies were often criticized by the media over the decades, the “institution of government” was still respected. This was, Moore stresses, when “capitalism and nationalism” were still bonded. Reagan’s and Thatcher’s administration effectively helped remove governmental protections for their respective citizens though framed it rhetorically as a positive to said citizenries. As if it were they who were protecting their citizens from government intrusion not setting them up for profound economic decline. Moore:
Soon, British and American populations were beginning to applaud the destruction of the very democratic institutions that provided their only hope of participation in the political process.
Moore sees the 1945 Bretton Woods financial system as being a catalyst for the profound separation of nationalism and capitalism. It set up the IMF, World Bank, and “a system of fixed exchange rates” which ostensibly were to ensure international economic and political stability. This would be reversed to the centralized economic tyranny of globalization we have now. The birth of average citizen-crushing neo-liberalism.
This new “global economy” gave rise to transnational corporations. Corporate leaders realized how much better not to be under the strict control of one particular nation-state. They intended to escape troublesome environmental, consumer-protection and other regulations.
Regarding the original Bretton Woods’ professed intention, fixed rates of currency exchange predictably began to be weakened rather than strengthened by the elite “establishment”. The international financial system was being “gamed” by international capitalist cronyism, destabiliizing rather than stabilizing national economies. Eventually the momentum for free trade would lead to the establishment of the World Trade Organization.
Neo-liberals, Moore explains flatly, want to remove “all political controls over domestic and international trade and commerce.” Thus, corporations get to maximize profits and ignore environmental regulations. As the WTO assumed more and more regulatory power over international commerce, environmental and consumer-protections were not honored.
Also, as the momentum of neo-liberalism and free trade escalated, hardest hit, of course, were nations “outside the West.” The IMF easily created struggling “debtor” nations. Rwanda and South Korea were two serious victims of the IMF.
Moore baldly compares the IMF to the 1800s settlers of North America and Australia who resorted to genocide to “clear out” the native populations. He doesn’t mince his words:
Today, a similar program of genocide has apparently been unleashed against sub-Saharan Africa. The IMF destroys the economies, the CIA trains militias and stirs up tribal conflicts, and the West sells weapons to all sides. Famine and genocidal civil wars are the predictable and inevitable result. Meanwhile, AIDS runs rampant while the WTO and the US government use trade laws to prevent medicines from reaching the victims.
Moore contends that the Pentagon and more and more NATO are presuming to illegitimately police the world on behalf of the economic elite. As their intervention grows in the Third World, so does anti-West resentment. Consider this and think of Syria as one of their latest victims.
Moore cites the excuse of “humanitarianism” to intervene militarily in vulnerable countries. Using the excuse of preventing genocide. This was reflected in the so-called “Clinton doctrine” says Moore.
This matrix fabrication is very effective indeed; who opposes prevention of genocide? Only outside the matrix does one see that genocide is caused by the West in the first place, that the worst cases of genocide are continuing, that "assistance" usually makes things worse (as in the Balkans), and that Clinton's handy doctrine enables him to intervene when and where he chooses. Since dictators and the stirring of ethnic rivalries are standard tools used in managing the periphery, a US president can always find "innocent civilians" wherever elite plans call for an intervention.
snip
In matrix reality, globalization is not a project but rather the inevitable result of beneficial market forces. Genocide in Africa is no fault of the West, but is due to ancient tribal rivalries. Every measure demanded by globalization is referred to as "reform," (the word is never used with irony). "Democracy" and "reform" are frequently used together, always leaving the subtle impression that one has something to do with the other. The illusion is presented that all economic boats are rising, and if yours isn't, it must be your own fault: you aren't "competitive" enough. Economic failures are explained away as "temporary adjustments," or else the victim (as in South Korea or Russia) is blamed for not being sufficiently neoliberal. "Investor confidence" is referred to with the same awe and reverence that earlier societies might have expressed toward the "will of the gods."
Moore predicts that Western quality of life will continue to decline and the continuing devastation of foreign populations is a given. He also makes the provocative statement, “Excess democracy will have to be reined in to protect mass global exploitation.”
The "excess democracy" of the 1960s and 1970s attacked this shared consensus from below, and neoliberal planners decided from above that ongoing consensus wasn't worth paying for. They accepted that segments of society would persist in disbelieving various parts of the matrix. Activism and protest were to be expected. New means of social control would be needed to deal with activist movements and with growing discontent, as neoliberalism gradually tightened the economic screws. Such means of control were identified and have since been largely implemented, particularly in the United States. In many ways America sets the pace of globalization; innovations can often be observed there before they occur elsewhere. This is particularly true in the case of social-control techniques.
Moore explores these techniques for social-control against dissenters. First the hard side of mass control of dissent:
1. A strong, semi-militarized police force. Urban and suburban ghettos, Moore insists, are seriously feeling the impact of this. They are literally “occupied territories” where police beatings and unjustified shootings are common.
2. The neutralizing of the bill of rights. This has been witnessed in midnight raids on the homes of dissenters, inappropriate and humiliating search and seizure practices, invasion of privacy, mass incarceration, and “the rise of prison slave labor” Moore puts forth.
At this point Moore offers an interesting analysis of our police tv shows and how they propagandize for inappropriate police authoritarianism. He writes:
In the matrix, the genre of the TV or movie police drama has served to create a reality in which "rights" are a joke, the accused are despicable sociopaths, and no criminal is ever brought to justice until some noble cop or prosecutor bends the rules a bit. Government officials bolster the construct by declaring "wars" on crime and drugs; the noble cops are fighting a war out there in the streets--and you can't win a war without using your enemy's dirty tricks. The CIA plays its role by managing the international drug trade and making sure that ghetto drug dealers are well supplied. In this way, the American public has been led to accept the means of its own suppression.
With all of us inundated with L&O and all its official and unofficial spin-offs 24/7, one might want to give the above insight a few minutes of consideration.
Moore explains that whenever citizen dissent seriously threatens the oligarchical system, the President will step in, suspend the Constitution and via executive order declare martial law.
Raw power is leverage in extreme cases, but Moore explains that a so-called “soft power” can be used via mass media and political propaganda to factionalize citizens to simply and profoundly keep each other down.
Divide and rule is one of the oldest means of mass control--standard practice since at least the Roman Empire. ... Within societies it works this way: If each social group can be convinced that some other group is the source of its discontent, then the population's energy will be spent in inter-group struggles. The regime can sit on the sidelines, intervening covertly to stir things up or to guide them in desired directions. In this way most discontent can be neutralized, and force can be reserved for exceptional cases.
In the prosperous postwar years, consensus politics served to manage the population. Under neoliberalism, programmed factionalism has become the front-line defense--the matrix version of divide and rule.
The covert guiding of various social movements has proven to be one of the most effective means of programming factions and stirring them against one another. Fundamentalist religious movements have been particularly useful. They have been used not only within the US, but also to maximize divisiveness in the Middle East and for other purposes throughout the empire. The collective energy and dedication of "true believers" makes them a potent political weapon that movement leaders can readily aim where needed. In the US that weapon has been used to promote censorship on the Internet, to attack the women's movement, to support repressive legislation, and generally to bolster the ranks of what is called in the matrix the "right wing."
Politicians, Moore maintains, want citizens to believe that if they pit their partisan group against opposing groups of fellow citizens they will ultimately “determine a full social agenda.” But Moore bottom lines what the real agenda is and how effectively and for how long the matrix has managed to obscure it.
In reality there is only one significant political agenda these days: the maximization of capital growth through the dismantling of society, the continuing implementation of neoliberalism, and the management of empire.
Moore calls out Bill Clinton’s “liberal” veneer to pump up matrix thinking. It was so useful for the capture of democracy by the globalizing overlords and at the same time the discouragement of dissent from the left.
Clinton's liberal rhetoric and his playing around with health care and gay rights are not the result of liberal pressure. They are rather the means by which Clinton is sold to liberal voters, so that he can proceed with real business: getting NAFTA through Congress, promoting the WTO, giving away the public airwaves, justifying military interventions, and so forth. Issues of genuine importance are never raised in campaign politics--this is a major glitch in the matrix for those who have eyes to see it.
With the Seattle riots of 1999 against globalization and the WTO, Moore points out that two factions came together that must have been quite unsettling for the “let’s you and him fight” game playing corporatists and their puppet politicians. “Left-leaning environmentalists” and “sociallly conservative union members.” It signaled a potential for mass citizen organization.
Moore has hope for humanity. He calls for a serious movement of citizens bent on escaping “entirely from the matrix,” and he adds “it must bring the rest of society with it.” He declares: “AS LONG AS THE MATRIX EXISTS, HUMANITY CANNOT BE FREE" ... "LEFT AND RIGHT ARE ONLY ENEMIES IN THE MATRIX.”
Marx may have failed as a social visionary, but he had capitalism figured out. It is based not on productivity or social benefit, but on the pursuit of capital growth through exploiting everything in its path. The job of elite planners is to create new spaces for capital to grow in. Competitive imperialism provided growth for centuries; collective imperialism was invented when still more growth was needed; and then neoliberalism took over. Like a cancer, capitalism consumes its host and is never satisfied. The capital pool must always grow, more and more, forever--until the host dies or capitalism is replaced.
Can a serious movement take hold to escape the matrix and topple its overlords? One based on a true citizenry consensus? Can such a movement force a paradigm shift from patriarchal power, control, greed and competition top/down governance to a humanist one of win/win partnership, cooperation and empathy?
Moore quotes a wise Carolyn Chute, anti-corporate activist:
It ain't left or right. It's up and down.
Here we all are down here struggling while
the Corporate Elite are all up there having a nice day![cross-posted on correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
---------------
I have tried to give a comment but it doesn't take.
Since that one took, mabe my first one will go. It is:
If you want to get a clearer and less dreamy eyed view of how the military and the current US government actually operates and what its motivations are read the latest article at Tom Dispatch.Com describing the situation in current Iraq by Greg Muttitt. I tried to give a direct link but this site refused it.
If you want to get a clearer and less dreamy eyed view of how the military and the current US government actually operates and what its motivations are read the latest article at Tom Dispatch.Com describing the situation in current Iraq by Greg Muttitt. I tried to give a direct link but this site refused it.
The Matrix one of the five best 5 movies ever made!
Plato wrote that men were hairless apes who sit frozen in place in a cave with their back to a fire and watch shadows on the wall cast by the procession of reality that pass’s between their backs and the fire. If one of the apes was ever dragged from the cave and forced to watch the whole spectacle from a hole in the ceiling above they could never go back and sit with the other apes and endure their bestial chatter.
Don’t worry Libby you may not need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind blows but I will pit my forecasting skills against any man ever born of woman:
RIP - The New World Order born late twentieth century died a horrible and violent death early twenty first century.
Did anybody ever stop to consider that Obama having been abandoned before birth by his Kenyan father has a pathological hatred for Black people, especially sub Saharan Black people!
Plato wrote that men were hairless apes who sit frozen in place in a cave with their back to a fire and watch shadows on the wall cast by the procession of reality that pass’s between their backs and the fire. If one of the apes was ever dragged from the cave and forced to watch the whole spectacle from a hole in the ceiling above they could never go back and sit with the other apes and endure their bestial chatter.
Don’t worry Libby you may not need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind blows but I will pit my forecasting skills against any man ever born of woman:
RIP - The New World Order born late twentieth century died a horrible and violent death early twenty first century.
Did anybody ever stop to consider that Obama having been abandoned before birth by his Kenyan father has a pathological hatred for Black people, especially sub Saharan Black people!
@ Jan -TomDispatch.com highly recommended!!!
Figures Jan is the only one on OS that reads it besides me.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/
Figures Jan is the only one on OS that reads it besides me.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/
@ Jan figures you read Tomdispatch.com to bad more of these typing capons don’t read it.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/
http://www.tomdispatch.com/
@ Jan figures you read Tomdispatch.com to bad more of these typing capons don’t read it.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/
http://www.tomdispatch.com/
Very interesting post. I'm afraid I have to disagree with Moore's analysis of what happened in Seattle during the anti-WTO protests. During the 20 years I participated in grassroots organizing in Seattle, I found rank and file unionists to be extremely radical. The problem was with the (paid) union leadership, especially the Washington State Labor Council, which is closely affiliated with the trade union bureaucracy that runs the AFL-CIO.
It wasn't simply a matter of these people being "socially conservative." They had a reputation for making "sweetheart deals" with management to hold down wage demands, as well as red baiting rank and file members who were "too far to the left" in their attacks on the Democratic Party and their desire to bring working conditions and "social issues" (such as single payer health care) to the bargaining table.
The paid staff at the Washington State Labor Council fought hard to prevent unions from participating in the anti-WTO protests. It was only through hard lobbying by the King County Labor Council, the public employees union and the Machinists that the staff were outvoted by rank and file members on the convention floor.
In trying to understand why American trade union bureaucrats are so reactionary in contrast to union leaders in other countries, some activists harken back to former CIA officer Tom Braden bragging about the number of AFL-CIO officials receiving monthly checks from the Agency. In Washington State we had our suspicions about two individuals in particular.
It wasn't simply a matter of these people being "socially conservative." They had a reputation for making "sweetheart deals" with management to hold down wage demands, as well as red baiting rank and file members who were "too far to the left" in their attacks on the Democratic Party and their desire to bring working conditions and "social issues" (such as single payer health care) to the bargaining table.
The paid staff at the Washington State Labor Council fought hard to prevent unions from participating in the anti-WTO protests. It was only through hard lobbying by the King County Labor Council, the public employees union and the Machinists that the staff were outvoted by rank and file members on the convention floor.
In trying to understand why American trade union bureaucrats are so reactionary in contrast to union leaders in other countries, some activists harken back to former CIA officer Tom Braden bragging about the number of AFL-CIO officials receiving monthly checks from the Agency. In Washington State we had our suspicions about two individuals in particular.
the matrix is the natural state of the usa. when you refer to 'our democracy' you substantiate the lie. when ever you ascribe democracy to the usa, you blur the need for revolution.
it was designed by rich men to perpetuate the rule of wealth, and it does just what the founding fathers designed it to do. this rule will continue until a revolutionary group gives it a kick.
it was designed by rich men to perpetuate the rule of wealth, and it does just what the founding fathers designed it to do. this rule will continue until a revolutionary group gives it a kick.
hey jan, thanks for trying again. Every so often I lose the capacity to comment on my own blog or those of others.
Thanks for head's up on article. Quote from Muttitt and your article:
"To conquer and garrison -- “liberate” -- Iraq would put the U.S. in a position of ultimate domination in the oil heartlands of the planet, or so thought the top officials of the Bush administration, a number of whom had been in or associated with the energy business before scaling the heights of Washington. As Dick Cheney put it to the Institute of Petroleum Engineers in 1999, when he was still running the energy company Halliburton, "The Middle East, with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies.""
But as Muttitt writes those sloganeering "blood for oil" were mocked as being overly simplistic and unpatriotic. I remember when the Bush administration military strategists were going to call the invasion of Iraq, "Operation Iraqi Liberation" but then the acronym would have been O-I-L so they hastily changed it.
You know, the matrix from leadership and media makes us citizens more "bobble-headed" or "boiled frogs-ish" in terms of "normalizing" amorality -- evil -- that is getting institutionalized at an accelerating rate. The media gets marching orders nowadays from oligarchs and corrupt pols and defines so effectively what the "status quo" is and doesn't want viewers to have a citizen identity only a consumer identity. They in effect tell us what we think and count on us trusting them.
Not enough journalists push back against this seduction any more. Instead they accelerate the propaganda.
I found this from Glenn Greenwald who does push back.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/31-0
glenn greenwald:
"Of course, it’s even more notable that political officials whom everyone knows authorized torture are walking around free, respected and prosperous, completely shielded from all criminal accountability. “Torture” has been permanently transformed from an unspeakable taboo into a garden-variety political controversy, where it shall long remain."
snip
"Isn’t it amazing that a newspaper editorial even has to say: you know, the President isn’t really supposed to have the power to act as judge, jury and executioner and order American citizens assassinated with no transparency or due process? And isn’t it even more amazing that the current President has actually seized and exercised this power with very little controversy? That presidential power — literally the most tyrannical power a political leader can seize — is also now a barely noticed fixture of our political culture."
snip
"Similarly, in the AP’s sentence above describing the supposed targets of this new NYPD surveillance program: what, exactly, is a “potential terrorist”? Isn’t that an incredibly Orwellian term given that, by definition, it can include anyone and everyone? In practice, it will almost certainly mean: all Muslims, plus anyone who engages in any activism that opposes prevailing power factions. That’s how the American Surveillance State is always used. Still, the undesirability of mass, “all-seeing,” indiscriminate surveillance regime was once viewed as undesirable — a view, in sum, that the East German Stasi was a bad idea that we would not want to replicate on American soil — yet now, there is almost no limit on the level of state surveillance we tolerate."
snip
"There is zero question that this drone surveillance is coming to American soil. It already has spawned a vast industry that is quickly securing formal approval for the proliferation of these surveillance weapons. There’s some growing though still marginal opposition among both the independent left and the more libertarian-leaning precincts on the right, but at the moment, that trans-ideological coalition is easily outgunned by the combination of drone industry lobbyists and Surveillance State fanatics. The idea of flying robots hovering over American soil monitoring what citizens do en masse is yet another one of those ideas that, in the very recent past, seemed too radical and dystopian to entertain, yet is on the road to being quickly mainstreamed. When that happens, it is no longer deemed radical to advocate such things; radicalism is evinced by opposition to them."
end of quote
Also, I was thinking about how "torture" acceptance among the majority of Americans was helped by that tv show, "24". I thought that was interesting what Moore said about pro-cop shows that over-generalize and under-empathize with possibly wrongly arrested people. People who are "extremists" left or right deserve to be locked up on the say so of our media heroes. And what Moore said about circumventing and tweaking their rights if it SEEMS on the side of justice, rather than honoring bill of rights protections. We catch a kind of cynicism from them and willingness to let prosecutors take liberties with liberty. I remember loving the "Closer" until they had Brenda grandiosely doing it.
I also think of how commercials of products make those corporations have good connotations, offering "warm and fuzzy" feelings of good will. Coca cola years ago wanted to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, etc., but how many know what they were doing to workers especially in foreign lands. I read not so long ago about serious allegations that Coca Cola hired thugs in South America to MURDER union leaders there.
We have a "sense of truthiness" trust about our politicians and about corporations (look at Oprah's early endorsement of Obama). Over-trust. The Corporation documentary from Canada explained how the "corporation as legal person" personality profile of a corporation is that of a "psychopath". All ruthless self-interest. Now with Citizens United that "psychopathic" corporate personhood has even more power and protection!
Jefferson said "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance." We need to get seriously vigilant as citizens and stay in that mode. We need to come out of our collective stupor of apathy and gross over-trust to the puppets of the corporate overlords in media and politics.
more than my 2-1/2 cents! :-)
best, libby
Thanks for head's up on article. Quote from Muttitt and your article:
"To conquer and garrison -- “liberate” -- Iraq would put the U.S. in a position of ultimate domination in the oil heartlands of the planet, or so thought the top officials of the Bush administration, a number of whom had been in or associated with the energy business before scaling the heights of Washington. As Dick Cheney put it to the Institute of Petroleum Engineers in 1999, when he was still running the energy company Halliburton, "The Middle East, with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies.""
But as Muttitt writes those sloganeering "blood for oil" were mocked as being overly simplistic and unpatriotic. I remember when the Bush administration military strategists were going to call the invasion of Iraq, "Operation Iraqi Liberation" but then the acronym would have been O-I-L so they hastily changed it.
You know, the matrix from leadership and media makes us citizens more "bobble-headed" or "boiled frogs-ish" in terms of "normalizing" amorality -- evil -- that is getting institutionalized at an accelerating rate. The media gets marching orders nowadays from oligarchs and corrupt pols and defines so effectively what the "status quo" is and doesn't want viewers to have a citizen identity only a consumer identity. They in effect tell us what we think and count on us trusting them.
Not enough journalists push back against this seduction any more. Instead they accelerate the propaganda.
I found this from Glenn Greenwald who does push back.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/31-0
glenn greenwald:
"Of course, it’s even more notable that political officials whom everyone knows authorized torture are walking around free, respected and prosperous, completely shielded from all criminal accountability. “Torture” has been permanently transformed from an unspeakable taboo into a garden-variety political controversy, where it shall long remain."
snip
"Isn’t it amazing that a newspaper editorial even has to say: you know, the President isn’t really supposed to have the power to act as judge, jury and executioner and order American citizens assassinated with no transparency or due process? And isn’t it even more amazing that the current President has actually seized and exercised this power with very little controversy? That presidential power — literally the most tyrannical power a political leader can seize — is also now a barely noticed fixture of our political culture."
snip
"Similarly, in the AP’s sentence above describing the supposed targets of this new NYPD surveillance program: what, exactly, is a “potential terrorist”? Isn’t that an incredibly Orwellian term given that, by definition, it can include anyone and everyone? In practice, it will almost certainly mean: all Muslims, plus anyone who engages in any activism that opposes prevailing power factions. That’s how the American Surveillance State is always used. Still, the undesirability of mass, “all-seeing,” indiscriminate surveillance regime was once viewed as undesirable — a view, in sum, that the East German Stasi was a bad idea that we would not want to replicate on American soil — yet now, there is almost no limit on the level of state surveillance we tolerate."
snip
"There is zero question that this drone surveillance is coming to American soil. It already has spawned a vast industry that is quickly securing formal approval for the proliferation of these surveillance weapons. There’s some growing though still marginal opposition among both the independent left and the more libertarian-leaning precincts on the right, but at the moment, that trans-ideological coalition is easily outgunned by the combination of drone industry lobbyists and Surveillance State fanatics. The idea of flying robots hovering over American soil monitoring what citizens do en masse is yet another one of those ideas that, in the very recent past, seemed too radical and dystopian to entertain, yet is on the road to being quickly mainstreamed. When that happens, it is no longer deemed radical to advocate such things; radicalism is evinced by opposition to them."
end of quote
Also, I was thinking about how "torture" acceptance among the majority of Americans was helped by that tv show, "24". I thought that was interesting what Moore said about pro-cop shows that over-generalize and under-empathize with possibly wrongly arrested people. People who are "extremists" left or right deserve to be locked up on the say so of our media heroes. And what Moore said about circumventing and tweaking their rights if it SEEMS on the side of justice, rather than honoring bill of rights protections. We catch a kind of cynicism from them and willingness to let prosecutors take liberties with liberty. I remember loving the "Closer" until they had Brenda grandiosely doing it.
I also think of how commercials of products make those corporations have good connotations, offering "warm and fuzzy" feelings of good will. Coca cola years ago wanted to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, etc., but how many know what they were doing to workers especially in foreign lands. I read not so long ago about serious allegations that Coca Cola hired thugs in South America to MURDER union leaders there.
We have a "sense of truthiness" trust about our politicians and about corporations (look at Oprah's early endorsement of Obama). Over-trust. The Corporation documentary from Canada explained how the "corporation as legal person" personality profile of a corporation is that of a "psychopath". All ruthless self-interest. Now with Citizens United that "psychopathic" corporate personhood has even more power and protection!
Jefferson said "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance." We need to get seriously vigilant as citizens and stay in that mode. We need to come out of our collective stupor of apathy and gross over-trust to the puppets of the corporate overlords in media and politics.
more than my 2-1/2 cents! :-)
best, libby
Thanks for commenting, Jack.
Before seeing The Matrix myself I remember my younger brother being so impressed with it and "getting it" -- it's message!
I love that apes scenario. Thanks for explaining it that way!
Re speculation on Obama's personal demons, when his own "story" was romanticized so when he was being introduced to America it stirred up cognitive dissonance in me and I couldn't help speculating though I was via media encouraged not to about what the real challenges to him might have been growing up and if there were negative impacts on his identity and negative influences on his values and perspectives. Glen Ford and others of Black Agenda Report often write about how particularly betraying the Obama administration seems to be to black people when you think there would be basic empathy there from his own challenging background. In return Obama is often defended by black people out of fierce loyalty. Denial is a profoundly thick wall often.
best, libby
Before seeing The Matrix myself I remember my younger brother being so impressed with it and "getting it" -- it's message!
I love that apes scenario. Thanks for explaining it that way!
Re speculation on Obama's personal demons, when his own "story" was romanticized so when he was being introduced to America it stirred up cognitive dissonance in me and I couldn't help speculating though I was via media encouraged not to about what the real challenges to him might have been growing up and if there were negative impacts on his identity and negative influences on his values and perspectives. Glen Ford and others of Black Agenda Report often write about how particularly betraying the Obama administration seems to be to black people when you think there would be basic empathy there from his own challenging background. In return Obama is often defended by black people out of fierce loyalty. Denial is a profoundly thick wall often.
best, libby
Thanks, Stuart!
Thanks for your Seattle take. You and your fellow activists are certainly heroes to Moore and should be to the rest of us!
Sounds like many of the "pragmatic" union leaders were the same way then they are today.
This is really interesting:
"In trying to understand why American trade union bureaucrats are so reactionary in contrast to union leaders in other countries, some activists harken back to former CIA officer Tom Braden bragging about the number of AFL-CIO officials receiving monthly checks from the Agency. In Washington State we had our suspicions about two individuals in particular."
Wow! That is certainly food for thought.
In our hyped up even more surveillance state, with "domestic terrorism" labeling more and more people exercising their supposed right to free speech, along with the desperation to be employed, more and more injustices will happen and deserve to be fought, while the stakes for fighting climb ever higher.
You know I get what Moore is saying about factions coming together on common ground and not letting the wedge issues that media and pols try to enflame divorce citizens on fighting for mutual values points and mutual economic benefits. The all or nothing, my party vs. yours does draw attention away from the real wreakers of destruction and decline and keeps us all despairing and frustrated.
When the public option progressives aimed even more venom it seemed at single payer advocates to their left than at those pushing for corporate based extorting insurance programs where the vendors took billions away from citizen aid on the right it was daunting! WTF was that hatred about? Group ego?
We have far to go as 99%ers to get it together, but that is where we have to get somehow.
best, libby
Thanks for your Seattle take. You and your fellow activists are certainly heroes to Moore and should be to the rest of us!
Sounds like many of the "pragmatic" union leaders were the same way then they are today.
This is really interesting:
"In trying to understand why American trade union bureaucrats are so reactionary in contrast to union leaders in other countries, some activists harken back to former CIA officer Tom Braden bragging about the number of AFL-CIO officials receiving monthly checks from the Agency. In Washington State we had our suspicions about two individuals in particular."
Wow! That is certainly food for thought.
In our hyped up even more surveillance state, with "domestic terrorism" labeling more and more people exercising their supposed right to free speech, along with the desperation to be employed, more and more injustices will happen and deserve to be fought, while the stakes for fighting climb ever higher.
You know I get what Moore is saying about factions coming together on common ground and not letting the wedge issues that media and pols try to enflame divorce citizens on fighting for mutual values points and mutual economic benefits. The all or nothing, my party vs. yours does draw attention away from the real wreakers of destruction and decline and keeps us all despairing and frustrated.
When the public option progressives aimed even more venom it seemed at single payer advocates to their left than at those pushing for corporate based extorting insurance programs where the vendors took billions away from citizen aid on the right it was daunting! WTF was that hatred about? Group ego?
We have far to go as 99%ers to get it together, but that is where we have to get somehow.
best, libby
Thanks, al.
How do we wake up a citizenry to push back when it has become so passive from profound propaganda and exploitive and shameless betraying leadership burnout? Granted the citizenry has a responsibility it collectively has not fulfilled -- deeply.
I don't think our government can fix itself from within. So much has been gamed in the system and there is so much cronyism. Look at how Goldman Sachs just got a you don't have to go to jail card from Obama's DOJ One of the most deserving people to be behind bars is Karl Rove who is considered STILL the most powerful political operative in the country. It is Orwellian. So many crimes and no accountability. The Don Seigelman case is heartbreaking, how Rove used cronies to wreak vengeance on him and he will go to prison. What Rove did re Plame. Apparently Rove was involved with a vote counting corporation in 2004 that tipped the Ohio election to Bush. How ugly and vast the evil and because the Bush administration put so many cronies in the court system, they are still perpetrating evil with impunity.
But that does not mean the Dems aren't perpetrating their own counterpoint evil and haven't sold out for their own or the same corporate pimps.
I do think the citizenry can become more proactive in local politics to begin with. I also have hope because of citizen journalists, often mocked by professional journalists who either have sold out or are excessively brave in putting forth reality.
Look at Julian Assange and Bradley Manning vilified by government and corporate media and how some citizens rally around them as profound heroes and messengers, but far more vilify them or just don't care about their fates as if it all has nothing to do with them. Who want to embrace the matrix not escape it.
I believe there are more activists out there than the matrix-serving media want us to know about. More and more people are recognizing the matrix.
I believe in people like Jill Stein running on the Green Party ticket! She calls out the matrix, which is why the media won't give her air time.
best, libby
How do we wake up a citizenry to push back when it has become so passive from profound propaganda and exploitive and shameless betraying leadership burnout? Granted the citizenry has a responsibility it collectively has not fulfilled -- deeply.
I don't think our government can fix itself from within. So much has been gamed in the system and there is so much cronyism. Look at how Goldman Sachs just got a you don't have to go to jail card from Obama's DOJ One of the most deserving people to be behind bars is Karl Rove who is considered STILL the most powerful political operative in the country. It is Orwellian. So many crimes and no accountability. The Don Seigelman case is heartbreaking, how Rove used cronies to wreak vengeance on him and he will go to prison. What Rove did re Plame. Apparently Rove was involved with a vote counting corporation in 2004 that tipped the Ohio election to Bush. How ugly and vast the evil and because the Bush administration put so many cronies in the court system, they are still perpetrating evil with impunity.
But that does not mean the Dems aren't perpetrating their own counterpoint evil and haven't sold out for their own or the same corporate pimps.
I do think the citizenry can become more proactive in local politics to begin with. I also have hope because of citizen journalists, often mocked by professional journalists who either have sold out or are excessively brave in putting forth reality.
Look at Julian Assange and Bradley Manning vilified by government and corporate media and how some citizens rally around them as profound heroes and messengers, but far more vilify them or just don't care about their fates as if it all has nothing to do with them. Who want to embrace the matrix not escape it.
I believe there are more activists out there than the matrix-serving media want us to know about. More and more people are recognizing the matrix.
I believe in people like Jill Stein running on the Green Party ticket! She calls out the matrix, which is why the media won't give her air time.
best, libby
Dunno, Libby. Calling for a serious movement of citizens bent on escaping “entirely from the matrix,” and...“it must bring the rest of society with it.” Is an intellectual's way of asking, "Why can't we all just get along?" I agree with his matrix analogy, which, if as organized and unified as Moore argues it is, we're already screwed as a society. The only way to escape it is to live off the grid, as outlaws, and hope the oligarchy runs out of fuel (i.e. market) before the planet runs out of time.
An underground economy, such as the one in Barcelona when I visited there in 1970, flourished among the people who'd given up on their local and state bureaucracies. Sort of a reverse of the Ayn Rand fantasy.
An underground economy, such as the one in Barcelona when I visited there in 1970, flourished among the people who'd given up on their local and state bureaucracies. Sort of a reverse of the Ayn Rand fantasy.
“AS LONG AS THE MATRIX EXISTS, HUMANITY CANNOT BE FREE" ... "LEFT AND RIGHT ARE ONLY ENEMIES IN THE MATRIX.” This year's presidential campaigns are particularly ironic for me. In 1990 as part of the Greens efforts to register enough voters to establish the Green Party on the California state ballot, a wonderful woman named Mindy Lorenz ran as a Green Party Candidate for Congress in a write-in campaign.
I took six months off work to help in that campaign, and our slogan for her candidacy was, "Neither Right no Left but Forward." This year both Republicans and Democrats have co-opted mutated parts of our Green platform and Obama's campaign has adopted a mutant version of our campaign slogan. Only 22 years have gone by, and history just leaves me shaking my head. Great post, Libby! Keep them coming.
I took six months off work to help in that campaign, and our slogan for her candidacy was, "Neither Right no Left but Forward." This year both Republicans and Democrats have co-opted mutated parts of our Green platform and Obama's campaign has adopted a mutant version of our campaign slogan. Only 22 years have gone by, and history just leaves me shaking my head. Great post, Libby! Keep them coming.
Here are a couple of you tube videos that document Mindy's campaign and might give you a blast from the past...BTW part of my contribution is seen in Mike Feinstein's "office" he's typing away on my IBM luggable PC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=snLIUHDXdfc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiguz8oIvzU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=snLIUHDXdfc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiguz8oIvzU
Although the police in general in the USA have a long and disreputable history of disrupting and counteracting popular protest movements and demonstrations by organized workers there has never, as far as I know, been a president before Obama who claimed the absolute right to kill or torture or imprison indefinitely anybody who he alone considered a threat to society. There has always, before this, been some sort of legal recourse to perhaps counter absolute executive power. That, now, seems to have vanished totally by mere presidential declaration and the massive protest that I would imagine would be the normal reaction of a relatively free democratic public is entirely missing. That seems to be an absolute signal that democracy is dead.
Matt, thanks so much for commenting.
You make me smile,
"Is an intellectual's way of asking, "Why can't we all just get along?"
Yes, I think it is. For us to realize who the really serious enemy to "our democracy" (sorry al) is! Corporate-politician as super-corrupt cronies!
I focus on people coming out of the matrix, pscyhologically and proactively politically. So many people who are close by this time with all the shameless greed and gratuitous violence going on. Connect the dots and say NO. Lesser of two evils crap is not good enough any more. Since the lesser evil has really gotten evil, despite the media spinning and MSNBC focusing most critically on the Repubs who deserve it, but not enough on the Dems, who also deserve it, I want people to take a stand, not be more and more willing to let evil be institutionalized and legalized like it was during both Bush and Obama.
Living off the grid? Like the book people in Fahrenheit 451?
Again, where I am focused is for people to recognize their indoctrination which is so hard with tv 24/7 seducing us into corporate-friendly think. Though I wish people could get off the grid in terms of not being extorted by the banksters!
Would like to hear more of your Barcelona experience!
"An underground economy, such as the one in Barcelona when I visited there in 1970, flourished among the people who'd given up on their local and state bureaucracies. Sort of a reverse of the Ayn Rand fantasy."
Hope you share more of this!
Best, libby xxx
You make me smile,
"Is an intellectual's way of asking, "Why can't we all just get along?"
Yes, I think it is. For us to realize who the really serious enemy to "our democracy" (sorry al) is! Corporate-politician as super-corrupt cronies!
I focus on people coming out of the matrix, pscyhologically and proactively politically. So many people who are close by this time with all the shameless greed and gratuitous violence going on. Connect the dots and say NO. Lesser of two evils crap is not good enough any more. Since the lesser evil has really gotten evil, despite the media spinning and MSNBC focusing most critically on the Repubs who deserve it, but not enough on the Dems, who also deserve it, I want people to take a stand, not be more and more willing to let evil be institutionalized and legalized like it was during both Bush and Obama.
Living off the grid? Like the book people in Fahrenheit 451?
Again, where I am focused is for people to recognize their indoctrination which is so hard with tv 24/7 seducing us into corporate-friendly think. Though I wish people could get off the grid in terms of not being extorted by the banksters!
Would like to hear more of your Barcelona experience!
"An underground economy, such as the one in Barcelona when I visited there in 1970, flourished among the people who'd given up on their local and state bureaucracies. Sort of a reverse of the Ayn Rand fantasy."
Hope you share more of this!
Best, libby xxx
jmac, thanks for your passion on this and your support!
I loved the Mindy Lorenz video. God, all she said, even before 9/11 and BP disasters, is so relevant to today. And it was being called out then. Is she running now. She reminds me of Jill S. The same kind of positive energy and calm grace and smart!!!
You certainly were a big part of Green history. BTW, the IBM pc looked liked it was getting good use on that second video. 6 months!!! Good for you. I almost pm'd you that Jill Stein was looking for staff.
Gotta go for now! Thanks.
best, libby
Yeah, shaking one's head or beating it against a wall over and over. WTF???? Obscene military spending, health care extortion from insurance companies, clock running out on climate change, and tax breaks for the rich. 1990 things were urgent. And here we are in 2012!!!
I loved the Mindy Lorenz video. God, all she said, even before 9/11 and BP disasters, is so relevant to today. And it was being called out then. Is she running now. She reminds me of Jill S. The same kind of positive energy and calm grace and smart!!!
You certainly were a big part of Green history. BTW, the IBM pc looked liked it was getting good use on that second video. 6 months!!! Good for you. I almost pm'd you that Jill Stein was looking for staff.
Gotta go for now! Thanks.
best, libby
Yeah, shaking one's head or beating it against a wall over and over. WTF???? Obscene military spending, health care extortion from insurance companies, clock running out on climate change, and tax breaks for the rich. 1990 things were urgent. And here we are in 2012!!!
Hey Jan. What Obama has done to basic constitutional rights is stunning. I mean, suspending habeas corpus by the Bush administration was horrifying and the torture program and we all waited to exhale for Obama to resume habeas corpus and close Gitmo and black site detention centers. Instead .... AGHHHHHH!!!!
There are law suits going after Obama and the administration BUT the Bush/Cheney monsters did such a good job corrupting the justice system with cronies (not to mention the SCOTUS) appealing to the third branch of government or even the second seems an exercise in futility but nevertheless must be followed up on. And we have fourth estate journalism so called on life support.
This is when you know the matrix is so powerful. When so-called progressives yawn at stuff by Obama that when Bush did it it caused horror and outrage. Cronyism for party team seems to have replaced serious critical analysis of each individual.
And the tv propaganda machine makes bobble-headed assenters. The tv is very powerful and dangerous. Programming, commercials, AND newscasts. I watch the NewsHour and more and more I see how big business has gotten those anchors to walk the line and not go near serious moral commentary, with environmental travesties as well as military ones. It makes me want to vomit. Bill Moyers is a rare voice of sanity and truth.
Thanks for commenting! best, libby
There are law suits going after Obama and the administration BUT the Bush/Cheney monsters did such a good job corrupting the justice system with cronies (not to mention the SCOTUS) appealing to the third branch of government or even the second seems an exercise in futility but nevertheless must be followed up on. And we have fourth estate journalism so called on life support.
This is when you know the matrix is so powerful. When so-called progressives yawn at stuff by Obama that when Bush did it it caused horror and outrage. Cronyism for party team seems to have replaced serious critical analysis of each individual.
And the tv propaganda machine makes bobble-headed assenters. The tv is very powerful and dangerous. Programming, commercials, AND newscasts. I watch the NewsHour and more and more I see how big business has gotten those anchors to walk the line and not go near serious moral commentary, with environmental travesties as well as military ones. It makes me want to vomit. Bill Moyers is a rare voice of sanity and truth.
Thanks for commenting! best, libby
Considering the trajectory of events in the USA wherein the financial, educational, health and other basic conditions are on the severe downgrade I doubt any amount of propaganda will suppress reality forever. When enough people are suffering sufficiently there is bound to be some sort of violent explosion. What happens next is anybody's guess.
Libby, the neutralizing of the bill of rights, is a global phenomenon, and it is one of the most fearful in my mind. I mean, we all live in a democracy, where there is even laws for making laws, but in reality there is no actual law.
This is such an interesting work, and the comment thread also. In today's news here in Greece, there was,among other issues for your country (and I mean the Isaac, wishes to be all OK), there was a report on your elections, concerning only Romney and Obama. The dipolic structure of right and wrong, the dipolic way..
Trully, one can find such analysis and informations only inside a University, so many bravos to you for your excellent work.
You make us think, and this is absolutely good to me. Bravo, for once again. Rated.
This is such an interesting work, and the comment thread also. In today's news here in Greece, there was,among other issues for your country (and I mean the Isaac, wishes to be all OK), there was a report on your elections, concerning only Romney and Obama. The dipolic structure of right and wrong, the dipolic way..
Trully, one can find such analysis and informations only inside a University, so many bravos to you for your excellent work.
You make us think, and this is absolutely good to me. Bravo, for once again. Rated.
Herbert Marcuse talked about one dimensional society and repressive tolerance. Both of these could be synonyms for the matrix. The Washington consensus and mainstream media work hand in glove with each other to perpetuate the system. However, there are a few wild cards that may turn over the whole well constructed apple cart.
One is the global financial Ponzi scheme whereby the banks and financial institutions make up a greater and greater percentage of GNP and World NP. With exotic financial instruments now being valued at an estimated four times that of the entire planet, this is clearly an unsustainable track. If the euro collapses, this could mean the collapse of the worldwide financial structure.
The other kicker in the bunch is global warming. Yes, it might be entirely possible that governments could institute dictatorships to somehow manage the side effects of climate change. But if left unchecked, some scientists estimate that the world population could be subjected to a 95% dieoff if the oil companies have their way.
Clearly, repressive tolerance or "the matrix" have little if any ways of dealing with these factors.
One is the global financial Ponzi scheme whereby the banks and financial institutions make up a greater and greater percentage of GNP and World NP. With exotic financial instruments now being valued at an estimated four times that of the entire planet, this is clearly an unsustainable track. If the euro collapses, this could mean the collapse of the worldwide financial structure.
The other kicker in the bunch is global warming. Yes, it might be entirely possible that governments could institute dictatorships to somehow manage the side effects of climate change. But if left unchecked, some scientists estimate that the world population could be subjected to a 95% dieoff if the oil companies have their way.
Clearly, repressive tolerance or "the matrix" have little if any ways of dealing with these factors.
It may be I am generalizing too much since I have little expertise in technical financial matters, but the fundamental values of species survival and growth depend upon simple things like food supply and an ecology that is fairly steady as to basic living conditions. Human civilization has abstracted basic values from the various necessities themselves into something that can be easily calculated and that is money. There is no way to get rid of money in a human civilization but there are surely ways to bring it on track to have it perform its basic function of reasonable transfer of necessities and as a stimulus to sane development of production potentials. Currently money has departed radically from these very necessary functions and the whole system of a workable civilization has gone radically out of kilter as a result. When money becomes a prime value divorced of its basic economic lubrication function those basic necessities for a livable world collapse and it is this collapse that the world is currently enduring and I see no way to stop it until the whole system falls apart and basics again are faced for survival. It seems human leadership is too stupid to see this.
JH has a nice analogy to platos cave. yeah the matrix is one of the best movies ever made. I might be a little biased there.
there is evidence everywhere of the matrix. even a patriot might question after awhile why there are only 2 parties and there doesnt seem much difference between them.
the real Matrix is still imperceptible to the masses. wikileaks is challenging that kind of system but I say, what has leaked so far is really close to nothing compared to the incendiary contents of some classified material. kennedy assassination documents anyone?
911 is another case where the matrix is both still invisible and visible.
there is evidence everywhere of the matrix. even a patriot might question after awhile why there are only 2 parties and there doesnt seem much difference between them.
the real Matrix is still imperceptible to the masses. wikileaks is challenging that kind of system but I say, what has leaked so far is really close to nothing compared to the incendiary contents of some classified material. kennedy assassination documents anyone?
911 is another case where the matrix is both still invisible and visible.
Jan, propaganda may not suppress the rage but it may jerk around the faux-critical thinking to the wrong directions once again, like government is bad for the people instead of bad government is bad for the people. And more lesser of two evils bullshit. I mean how can the bar get any lower?
The tipping point into suffering? I don't know. the magic box manages to keep on ignoring reality and people bobble-headedly go along and ignore the outrages that keep getting heaped on us.
These bastard politicians and admin. are lecturing us about austerity when they have stolen our tax dollars and our jobs and very means of survival in terms of food, homes, health care, jobs, social programs ... to put obscene amounts of cash into the very top tier ruling class sociopathic oligarchs' bank accounts!
There is so much anti-empathy trickling down from above, evident EVERYWHERE, that it is really depressing. Stockholm syndrome of identifying with the aggressors. Look at all Hitler got away with whipping up patriotism to the fatherland. Look at how people kept their heads down and worried about their own survival and the hell with the rest of humanity.
Thanks for exchange, as always! best, libby
The tipping point into suffering? I don't know. the magic box manages to keep on ignoring reality and people bobble-headedly go along and ignore the outrages that keep getting heaped on us.
These bastard politicians and admin. are lecturing us about austerity when they have stolen our tax dollars and our jobs and very means of survival in terms of food, homes, health care, jobs, social programs ... to put obscene amounts of cash into the very top tier ruling class sociopathic oligarchs' bank accounts!
There is so much anti-empathy trickling down from above, evident EVERYWHERE, that it is really depressing. Stockholm syndrome of identifying with the aggressors. Look at all Hitler got away with whipping up patriotism to the fatherland. Look at how people kept their heads down and worried about their own survival and the hell with the rest of humanity.
Thanks for exchange, as always! best, libby
Stathi, our countries', ALL countries' citizens are in similar boats. There is a war against the working class and the middle class which class won't really exist any more pretty soon, only the extremely wealthy and the rest of us shocked and awed economically desperate survivors the 1% deign to let limp along or not considering water and food accessibility at some point.
We need to organize. I am so struck that Green Party is offering a counterpoint to the evil of the corporate and pol cronies and the citizens walk by. If you can't definitely WIN, why bother? Grrrrrr.
Green Party is international, though not locked into a tight agenda, but a list of honorable and decent principles it commits to uphold, like social justice, peace and protection of the environment.
Appreciate your support and thoughtful comments, always, Stathi. You give me hope!
best, libby
xxxxx
We need to organize. I am so struck that Green Party is offering a counterpoint to the evil of the corporate and pol cronies and the citizens walk by. If you can't definitely WIN, why bother? Grrrrrr.
Green Party is international, though not locked into a tight agenda, but a list of honorable and decent principles it commits to uphold, like social justice, peace and protection of the environment.
Appreciate your support and thoughtful comments, always, Stathi. You give me hope!
best, libby
xxxxx
ONL, Thanks for commenting! You know I once heard someone say that supposed so-called pragmatic realists are really optimists and those of us who are accused of being pessimists are really the real realists.
"One dimensional society" hits a huge chord (kind of like we all have consumer rather than citizen identities) and "repressive tolerance?" That sounds like an oxymoron. You mean repressive tolerance projected onto each other? Tolerate an intolerable status quo or you will be vilified for messaging it by your fellow citizens dedicated to denial? Yes, it does sound like the matrix Moore is describing.
You write:
"The Washington consensus and mainstream media work hand in glove with each other to perpetuate the system. However, there are a few wild cards that may turn over the whole well constructed apple cart.
"One is the global financial Ponzi scheme whereby the banks and financial institutions make up a greater and greater percentage of GNP and World NP. With exotic financial instruments now being valued at an estimated four times that of the entire planet, this is clearly an unsustainable track. If the euro collapses, this could mean the collapse of the worldwide financial structure."
end of your quote
Addicts don't get better if they don't give up the addiction. And addicts also make life unmanageable for the network around them more and more and more. Denial and enabling empower the addiction and thus network destruction.
I wonder about the third wild card, the insane warmachine entering WWIII. Will we lose survival due to no finances, or will climate change end us, or will nuclear war?
Those of us who are the messengers sure as h*ll won't get the satisfaction of sticking around to say "I told you so!" eh?
best, libby
"One dimensional society" hits a huge chord (kind of like we all have consumer rather than citizen identities) and "repressive tolerance?" That sounds like an oxymoron. You mean repressive tolerance projected onto each other? Tolerate an intolerable status quo or you will be vilified for messaging it by your fellow citizens dedicated to denial? Yes, it does sound like the matrix Moore is describing.
You write:
"The Washington consensus and mainstream media work hand in glove with each other to perpetuate the system. However, there are a few wild cards that may turn over the whole well constructed apple cart.
"One is the global financial Ponzi scheme whereby the banks and financial institutions make up a greater and greater percentage of GNP and World NP. With exotic financial instruments now being valued at an estimated four times that of the entire planet, this is clearly an unsustainable track. If the euro collapses, this could mean the collapse of the worldwide financial structure."
end of your quote
Addicts don't get better if they don't give up the addiction. And addicts also make life unmanageable for the network around them more and more and more. Denial and enabling empower the addiction and thus network destruction.
I wonder about the third wild card, the insane warmachine entering WWIII. Will we lose survival due to no finances, or will climate change end us, or will nuclear war?
Those of us who are the messengers sure as h*ll won't get the satisfaction of sticking around to say "I told you so!" eh?
best, libby
Thanks, vzn! I agree, JH painted that cave scenario remarkably well!!! And the matrix is a helpful framing of what has happened to us all nationally and globally.
It seems the bigger the lies the more enmeshed people are to the matrix narrative along with that authoritarian following enmeshment, Stockholm Syndrome, identify with your aggressor, blame the victim scenario.
Re the lying to us. Trusting and distracted or apathetic or narcissistic citizens think it can't be as bad as the non-matrix people are saying because that would be just so impossibly evil and betraying.
There are undoubtedly many layers to escaping the matrix as you say. We think we are getting outside of it and realize there is a whole new layer of mythology we didn't even realize we bought into. We live in the matrix like fish in a fishbowl that breathe in the water so intimately (as we do the 24/7 lying and seduction on mass media) they may not even recognize they are surrounded by water. What water?
Some matrix exiters don't want to associate with other matrix exiters because they don't want to be demonized as eccentric or extremists. Anti-war people are uncomfortable with the 9/11 conspiracy theorists, say.
It is a natural and human and healthy tendency to be repelled by evil, not to look for it or assume it, not to suspect unimaginable evil. This natural human tendency is exploited by the psychopathic and sociopathic. They figure the bigger the whoppers they tell, the more likely they won't be challenged. Or the more arrogance they assert their decisions with, the fewer people will challenge them. Especially if they have loud-mouthed cronies enabling them.
Thanks so much for stopping by!!!!
best, libby
It seems the bigger the lies the more enmeshed people are to the matrix narrative along with that authoritarian following enmeshment, Stockholm Syndrome, identify with your aggressor, blame the victim scenario.
Re the lying to us. Trusting and distracted or apathetic or narcissistic citizens think it can't be as bad as the non-matrix people are saying because that would be just so impossibly evil and betraying.
There are undoubtedly many layers to escaping the matrix as you say. We think we are getting outside of it and realize there is a whole new layer of mythology we didn't even realize we bought into. We live in the matrix like fish in a fishbowl that breathe in the water so intimately (as we do the 24/7 lying and seduction on mass media) they may not even recognize they are surrounded by water. What water?
Some matrix exiters don't want to associate with other matrix exiters because they don't want to be demonized as eccentric or extremists. Anti-war people are uncomfortable with the 9/11 conspiracy theorists, say.
It is a natural and human and healthy tendency to be repelled by evil, not to look for it or assume it, not to suspect unimaginable evil. This natural human tendency is exploited by the psychopathic and sociopathic. They figure the bigger the whoppers they tell, the more likely they won't be challenged. Or the more arrogance they assert their decisions with, the fewer people will challenge them. Especially if they have loud-mouthed cronies enabling them.
Thanks so much for stopping by!!!!
best, libby
What is really worrying me is the permissive attitude accorded Israel now armed with sufficient nuclear hardware to destroy the ecology of much f the world. Fukushima has clearly demonstrated the insanity of the current pronuclear groups in denying profound damages of nuclear clumsiness and the use of radioactive uranium in even normal military hardware has indicated long lasting effects on inhabitants.
The rabid political opportunists such as Netanyahu in fomenting a totally unnecessary war with Iran (a view even Israeli military experts hold) which might lead to a nuclear attack, and which Obama seems to be underhandedly supporting with US unjustified sanctions and cyber attacks may bring the end of everything. It seems obvious that the point of the whole middle east mess has been the attempt of the USA to control whatever is left of the oil and the total failures of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan show no effect on the blatantly idiotic policies now in progress. The leadership in all directions of the west is so astoundingly stupid and vicious it looks to me as if there is little if any hope.
The rabid political opportunists such as Netanyahu in fomenting a totally unnecessary war with Iran (a view even Israeli military experts hold) which might lead to a nuclear attack, and which Obama seems to be underhandedly supporting with US unjustified sanctions and cyber attacks may bring the end of everything. It seems obvious that the point of the whole middle east mess has been the attempt of the USA to control whatever is left of the oil and the total failures of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan show no effect on the blatantly idiotic policies now in progress. The leadership in all directions of the west is so astoundingly stupid and vicious it looks to me as if there is little if any hope.
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